Sworn
Donald Trump enemy John McCain admitted Wednesday that he passed the
dossier of claims of a Russian blackmail plot against the
president-elect - calling it 'what any citizen should do'.

McCain
- a longstanding anti-Trump Republican who had disassociated himself
from the candidate's campaign weeks before the election - cast
himself as an innocent and concerned member of the public as he
justified his move.

He
claimed he had no idea whether it was accurate or not - but that he
believed the FBI should have it because it was 'sensitive'.

'I
did what any citizen should do. I received sensitive information and
handed it to the FBI,' he told CNN - the network which broke the
story that the document existed. It was then published in full by
Buzzfeed.

'What
any citizen should do': The Arizona senator, 80, claimed he was
simply acting as a concerned member of the public when he had his
face-to-face meeting with the FBI Director

'That's
why I gave it to the FBI. I don't know if it is credible or not but
the information I thought deserved to be delivered to the FBI, the
appropriate agency of government.'

He
added: 'It doesn't trouble me because I don't know if it is accurate
or not. I have no way of corroborating that.

'The
individual gave me the information. I looked at it. After receiving
that information I took it to the FBI.'

He
added that he was now aware from media reports that the FBI was
apparently already in possession of the information. '

The
Arizona senator had issued a public statement amid mounting questions
of his exact role in the affair - and how a document riddled with
errors and unverifiable claims came to be published.

'Late
last year, I received sensitive information that has since been made
public,' he said.

'Upon
examination of the contents, and unable to make a judgment about
their accuracy, I delivered the information to the Director of the
FBI.

'That
has been the extent of my contact with the FBI or any other
government agency regarding this issue.'

But
the 2008 Republican loser, who disowned his party's candidate weeks
before the election, may have been far more intimately involved than
that.